How to Level Up to Level 40 on 'Pokémon Go' Quickly Without Spending Any Money

Pokémon Go, the augmented reality mobile game spinoff of the massive Poké-empire, debuted back on July 6 and is still wildly popular one month later — with more than 100 million downloads from gamers across the globe. But for many, the race to gain experience and level up can feel like a slog. Luckily, there are a few tips you can use to speed things up all the way up to level 40 — and beat your friends there in the process.

There are some simple strategies you can use to power through early levels, like using incense to attract wild Pokémon to your location, playing whenever and wherever you can, traveling around while playing and throwing curveballs whenever you're catching a Pokémon.

But those will only get you so far — the real trick to making it all the way up to level 30 quickly (and cheaply) is threefold: Catch lots of Pidgeys, use Lucky Eggs, evolve all your Pidgeys. Repeat forever and ever until you're the Poké-master.

This isn't a hack — it's just common sense. Pidgeys (and other super common Pokémon) are all over the place, and they're cheap to evolve. Don't pass them up just because they're everywhere, catch 'em all (just like the song says). Every Pokémon you catch means more XP for you, and more XP means higher levels.

Use your Lucky Eggs (you'll get these for free every once in a while) when you evolve your Pidgeys for even more XP. Of course, you can spend real money on even more Lucky Eggs if you want to climb the ranks even faster — but if you're aiming to get to level 30 without spending a dime, then, well ... keep on catching those Pidgeys.